Albrecht Alt

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Albrecht Alt, Old Testament scholar in Leipzig (1925)

Albrecht Alt (born September 20, 1883 in Stübach near Diespeck ( Franconia ), † April 24, 1956 in Leipzig ) was a German Protestant theologian and professor of the Old Testament in Greifswald , Basel , Halle and Leipzig . His focus was on geography, social history and law of Israel and the surrounding countries in biblical times, and he introduced the territorial historical method into theology.

Live and act

Albrecht Alt grew up in the Stübach rectory. His father, Friedrich Alt, died in 1898, his mother Caroline nee. Old 1929. Until the 17th century, the ancestors were mostly pastors or teachers.

From 1894 to 1898 he attended the Progymnasium in Neustadt an der Aisch , graduated from the Gymnasium in Ansbach from 1898 to 1902 and studied Protestant theology at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and the University of Leipzig from 1902 to 1906 . As a high school student he learned other ancient oriental languages ​​in addition to Hebrew; later he spoke Palestinian Arabic almost like a local.

When he was a candidate for the office of preacher, a scholarship from the Bavarian regional church enabled him to participate in a teaching course at the German Evangelical Institute for Classical Studies in the Holy Land : an experience that shaped Alt's further theological path (January to May 1908). In the same year 1908 he became inspector of the Theological Study House in Greifswald . He received his doctorate in 1909 in Greifswald and became an associate professor in 1912: in 1909 he submitted the script Israel and Egypt as a doctorate and simultaneous habilitation at the University of Greifswald . In 1912/1913 he worked at the Jerusalem Institute and continued to look for opportunities to work in Palestine.

During his studies Alt was a member of the Christian student associations Erlanger Wingolf , Leipziger Wingolf and Munich Wingolf .

In 1912 Alt became an associate professor in Greifswald, and in 1914 he became a full professor alongside Bernhard Duhm at the University of Basel . During the First World War he served in the German Orient Army as a medic and finally as head of the cartographic department and employee of the German-Turkish monument protection command . After the war he was temporarily again a professor in Basel , later provost of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem . In 1921 he was appointed to a professorship at the theological faculty in Halle , and in 1923 at the University of Leipzig, albeit with a one-year leave of absence to end his activities in Jerusalem.

During the academic summer vacation from 1924 to 1931, Albrecht Alt held teaching courses in Jerusalem, to which he said he owed a lot for his own research. After 1935 he no longer came to Palestine. Rudolf Smend describes the 1920s and early 1930s as the high point of Alt's academic career. Several fundamental works appeared in quick succession, as typical for Alt, these were small writings, including:

  • 1925 The Israelites' conquest of Palestine;
  • 1925 Judas Gaue under Josiah;
  • 1925 the rise of Jerusalem;
  • 1927 The system of tribal borders in the Book of Joshua;
  • 1929 The God of the Fathers;
  • 1929 The system of the Assyrian provinces on the soil of the Empire of Israel;
  • 1930 The formation of states by the Israelites in Palestine;
  • 1934 The Origins of Israelite Law;
  • 1934 The role of Samaria in the emergence of Judaism.

Alt did not sympathize with National Socialism and did not join any of its organizations, but tried to carry out his scientific work and theological teaching well and to save a lot of it in the post-war period. In 1934 he appeared in two publications against the anti-Semitic use of the Old Testament. In contrast to Emanuel Hirsch and Walter Grundmann , he emphasized in a series of articles in 1939 that the population of Galilee was predominantly Jewish, and that the speculation, popular among German Christians, about the non-Jewish descent of Jesus of Nazareth was therefore unfounded.

From 1941 to 1947 he had to do Old Testament studies, including Hebrew lessons, on his own in Leipzig because his two assistants were drafted into the army and died in the process. During this time he devoted more than 20 hours a week, once even 29, to academic teaching.

He taught in Leipzig until autumn 1955, and in spring 1956 he died of lung cancer.

Grave stone of Albrecht Alt in the Leipzig south cemetery

Well-known students of Albrecht Alt were Gerhard von Rad , Martin Noth , Siegfried Herrmann and Herbert Donner

Albrecht Alt had been married to Hildegard Lange, who had a doctorate in art history, since 1938.

Teaching

Albrecht Alt was open to various research approaches and made them fruitful for Old Testament science: he was influenced by the historians Eduard Meyer and Albert Hauck, as well as the sociologist Max Weber . Alt developed an image of the early days of Israel that differed significantly from the biblical representation. In contrast to the narratives of conquest and destruction in the book of Joshua , he assumed an essentially peaceful conquest of the Israelites ; In the rhythm of transhumance , the Israelites gradually advanced from the steppe into the cultivated land. (Especially in German Old Testament scholarship after 1945, Alt's model was very attractive, as an alternative to the violent land grabbing in National Socialist ideology .)

During the subsequent period of the founding of the state of Israel, Alt's approach changed, he focused on David's “political genius”. Step by step, taking advantage of the moment, David built up this new state and created a “great empire”. Rudolf Smend commented that it was difficult to imagine that Alt did not have the work of Bismarck in mind.

Honors

Selected works

  • The god of the fathers. A contribution to the prehistory of the Israelite religion (= contributions to the science of the Old and New Testament 3.12); Kohlhammer: Stuttgart 1929.
  • The origin of the Hyksos in a new perspective (= reports on the negotiations of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. Philological-historical class 101.6); Akademie-Verlag: Berlin 1954.
  • Small writings on the history of the people of Israel. Selection in one band ; Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt: Berlin 1962 [1963].
  • The city-state of Samaria (= reports on the negotiations of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. Philological-historical class 101.5); Akademie-Verlag: Berlin 1954.
  • The origins of Israelite law (= reports on the negotiations of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Philological-historical class 86.1); Hirzel: Leipzig 1934.
  • Peoples and states of Syria in early antiquity (= The old Orient: common representations 34.4); Hinrichs: Leipzig 1936.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883-1956 , 1984, p. 293.
  2. ^ Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883-1956 , 1984, p. 303.
  3. ^ Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883-1956 , 1984, p. 294.
  4. ↑ Alt later distanced himself from this work, cf. Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883–1956 , 1984, p. 298.
  5. ↑ August Winkler: Vademekum Wingolfitikum , Wingolfsverlag, Wolfratshausen 1925, p. 159.
  6. ^ Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883-1956 , 1984, p. 295.
  7. ^ Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883-1956 , 1984, p. 300.
  8. ↑ Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883–1956 , 1984, p. 287. Cf. Albrecht Alt: The false and the true God of the Old Testament (1934) and Albrecht Alt, Joachim Greich , Gerhard von Rad : Guide to Christianity through the Old Testament (1934).
  9. ^ Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883–1956 , 1984, pp. 287f.
  10. ^ Rudolf Smend: Albrecht Alt 1883–1956 , 1984, p. 289.
  11. ↑ Robert Neuwirt: Albrecht Alt , Baudenbach year unknown
  12. ^ Eckhard Lessing: History of German-speaking Protestant theology from Albrecht Ritschl to the present . 1918-1945. tape 2 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56954-8 , pp. 176 .
  13. ↑ Rudolf Smend: Critics and Exegetes. Portrait sketches on four centuries of Old Testament science . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-525-53142-6 , pp. 667 .
  14. ↑ Sebastian Grätz:  Alt, Albrecht. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
predecessor Office successor
Gustaf Dalman Evangelical Lutheran Provost of Jerusalem
1921–1922 		Hans Wilhelm Hertzberg
personal data
SURNAME Alt, Albrecht
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and Old Testament scholar
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Stübach , Franconia
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1956
Place of death Leipzig